Publisher

Collections

Authors

Abstract

Evaluation of soil-foundation-structure interaction (SFSI) effects on structural response is a
challenging task because of the involved impact of uncertainties in system’s parameters and randomness in
the input earthquake motion. In this paper, a rational method is utilized to elucidate these effects through the
use of a rheological soil-foundation-structure model in a robust probabilistic simulation. Realistic, but random
models with varied soil and structural parameters within relevant range of values are generated out of a
Monte Carlo simulation and subjected to an ensemble of earthquake motions. Both linear and nonlinear structural
behavior due to earthquake motion is considered. The SFSI effects on linear structural response are
quantified by the median response and the accompanied dispersion and are then used as a reference when
evaluating the SFSI effects for superstructures with nonlinear behavior. In addition, for the structural systems
with linear behavior detrimental SFSI scenarios are indentified. The achieved quantification of SFSI effects
can be used as a significant step towards a reliable seismic design framework incorporating SFSI. Note that in
all analyses the nonlinearity in soil behavior has been accounted for through the equivalent linear approach.